Sunday, May 02, 2010

ALL's FAIR IN NEW MEDIA WORLD

1 PICTURE IS WORTH 1,000 WORDS: As spotted outside Las Vegas Motor Speedway, telling you all you need to know about what's happened to Indy Car racing in the last 15 years.

Last week I mentioned that Dale Earnhardt Jr. wasn't (and maybe still isn't) too happy with Darrell Waltrip for using Twitter to reveal that Junior would be driving a No. 3 Wrangler-sponsored Chevrolet fielded by Richard Childress in the Daytona Nationwide race. This before Junior was able to make the official announcement and car unveiling at ceremonies to honor his late and legendary father.

I'm with Junior in that this is troublesome. Since a few people have been asking me about the ethics involved, let me share a personal story.

Several years ago, an IRL car owner got to using his team's website to share not only his thoughts on his own operation, but to let out as-yet non-public news about what other teams had planned. One week, he took the liberty to say something about a team-sponsor deal that got my attention, because I was working on that project. No surprise, I wasn't too happy.

So, what did I do? I let it be known that if said owner EVER did anything like that again on something I was involved with, I'd leak-out stuff that I knew damn well he didn't want out there.

Please look for my story on Antron Brown in this Friday's Arizona Republic. Antron opens-up about the accident at Firebird International Raceway that resulted in a spectator fatality. You'll be surprised at who has helped Antron get through this difficult time. If you're not in Arizona to buy the paper, look for the story at AZCentral.com.

Upcoming The Race Reporters guests:(Show is live Wednesdays at 7 p.m. EDT, downloadable, and available on-demand at no cost. Click on TRR page logo in upper right-hand column.)

June 9 -- One Year Anniversary Show featuring original Newsmaker John Force and first panelists Paul Page and Jon Asher. Plus: Special surprise guests from around the racing world.[ Bernstein news nugget Thursday . . . ]